Wednesday, June 8, 2016

African Church Dance

I took this fifteen-second video in a South African Pentecostal Church at the end of last year. The circular dance is typical of African Indigenous Churches in general: a line of dancers follows a circular path, always in a counter-clockwise direction. This is repeated many times throughout a service. Notice the typical female descant. OBSERVATION: The dance has ancient origins in Africa, although few if any churchgoers will be aware of this. Compare Anglican Church Thaba Patshoa for an African Church singing in the European missionary tradition.

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